World's worst pirates and their parents face walking the plank

Mahesh Sharma and Ben Grubb

Attorney-General George Brandis has heralded the end of a golden era for online piracy in Australia, declaring Australia the "worst offender" in the world.

Governments everywhere are legislating limits to the distribution of illegally sourced songs and movies to help copyright holders promote, and protect, their legitimate content sales.

Senator Brandis is working with Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to formulate a crackdown in which a number of options are under consideration, technology publication ZDNet revealed.

When the New Zealand government introduced online anti-piracy measures, similar to those being considered here, what followed was some unknowing parents were shocked to receive fines for thousands of dollars .

It is the internet account holders who are ultimately responsible – even though it may have been the kids who were sharing pirated music produced by the likes of Rihanna, Ke$ha, and Lady Gaga. Under New Zealand's "three strikes" law, internet service providers are required to issue offenders with two warnings before a tribunal levies financial penalties.

The New Zealand Copyright Tribunal has secured 17 successful decisions on behalf of copyright holders since the law’s introduction in September 2011, clawing back an average of $500 per song, such as Jason Derulo's It Girl.

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Australian Internet users, service providers, and file-sharing websites have been put on notice. But some argue insufficient attention is being paid to the needs of local TV and movie audiences keen to keep up with digital pop culture.

"Australia, I'm sorry to say, is the worst offender of any country in the world when it comes to [online] piracy, and I am very concerned that the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders and content creators are being compromised by that activity," Senator Brandis said recently in Senate estimates hearings in Canberra. "We want to do something about that."

Though the Abbott government has been tight-lipped on the detail of its plans, in February Senator Brandis in a speech proposed blocking websites that host pirated content and introducing "graduated warnings" that internet providers could send users on behalf of rights holders – who already monitor services that facilitate file-sharing.

Simon Bush of the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association, which represents the $1 billion Australian film and TV home entertainment industry, does not support a scheme which fines or disconnects internet customers. He instead prefers the "logical solution" of sending warning notices and slowing down repeat offenders' internet connections.

"If you get a 15-year-old or a 24-year-old who loves downloading [pirated] movies and you throttle their service, that's like social hell for them," he said. "So that could be enough of an incentive."

Music Rights Australia general manager Vanessa Hutley wouldn't say what type of a graduated response scheme she would like to see in Australia, but also ruled out disconnection and fines.

The crux of the issue is fair, timely and affordable access. Locally, the wildly popular Game of Thrones TV series became a martyr for the cause when the most recent episodes could not be purchased via the iTunes store because of HBO’s exclusive broadcast agreement with Foxtel – forcing fans to subscribe to pay TV to stay up-to-date.

Popular American comedian Louis CK observed the access issue first-hand during a recent trip to Australia, when he found that there was a loyal following of his show "Louie", despite the fact it doesn't air locally. Without a viable option to buy or access the shows quickly and affordably, he said his fans (understandably) resorted to piracy.

"[In America] only weirdos pirate, there's not that many people that pirate. But in Australia mums and dads pirate video because we're not letting them buy it," Louis told radio station Sirius XM.

“Everyone in the world is like: ‘Take my f--king credit card and let me just have the thing! But if you're going to be a pain in the ass, f--k you! I can steal all of it!’”

AHEDA’s Mr Bush pointed to the introduction of France's HADOPI law in 2009, which resulted in a 70 per cent change in the behaviour of former pirates who subsequently purchased content after they received their first warning notice about pirating.

However, the French abandoned the scheme last July, in favour of blocking access to sites hosting pirated content. The government also found the scheme was financially unsound: 12 million euros were spent to prosecute 134 cases, which could garner a maximum fine of 1500 euros each.

The impact of "graduated response" schemes in developed countries such as New Zealand, France, and the United States, was evaluated by Dr Rebecca Giblin, law professor at Monash University. They failed to reduce infringement, maximise authorised uses, or promote learning and culture, she said, and should be reconsidered.

This view was supported by Kate Duckworth, partner at New Zealand intellectual property law firm Catalyst, who said there was a need for more education if rights enforcers want to reduce the occurrence of file-sharing. In one case, Duckworth demonstrated the enforcement tribunal hadn't supplied an internet account holder with sufficient warnings, causing the case to be dropped.

Whether the Australian government will go as far as disconnecting users from the internet remains unclear. The Attorney-General's office only said the government was "actively considering a range of options" to tackle online piracy.